


what would you wish for if you had the chance

by serenesavagery (DivergentElf)



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 5 Times, Alternate Universe - Percy Jackson Fusion, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Emotional Constipation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotionally Repressed, Eventual Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluffy Ending, M/M, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Percy Jackson References, Romantic Fluff, Teenagers, Unresolved Emotional Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2018-05-14
Packaged: 2019-05-06 19:46:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14654886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DivergentElf/pseuds/serenesavagery
Summary: Being the son of Hades actually stinks (not literally otherwise everybody would avoid him) because you know, bad mojo from the god of the death.Tony wants to call them stupid, because Hades was the god of the motherfucking Underworld, not death, that was Thanatos.One person doesn't avoid him for some reason and that intrigues Tony.





	what would you wish for if you had the chance

_1st touch: reaching out_

Tony's first quest was when he was first touched. 

 

There were only two of them on this quest; himself and some kid of Apollo called Strange. 

Tony honestly can't be bothered to remember the kid's name because all demigods tended to stay away from him like he did a bad job bathing or something.

Honestly, the quest itself wasn't much trouble; some group of cyclopes escaped from the House of Hades ( _that_ was trouble because it meant certain higher forces were moving quickly) and were causing havoc in the streets of New York but Tony had got the brunt of it. 

Those cyclopes were pretty pissed at Hades and had figured a dead Tony would be a good way to piss off Hades (how wrong were they) and they had beat him up brutally just as he was about to kill them and that was before Strange had intervened. 

Tony managed to kill them off with Strange's help, but he still got off badly. 

So it fell to the son of the god of healing to heal an unconscious Tony, namely Strange. 

 

Tony woke up to something soft and light on his stomach and widened his eyes when he saw Strange touching his stomach with a golden glow around him. 

"Oh good, you woke up." Strange said, looking pale for some reason and he quickly took his hands off Tony's body, wiping them. 

Figures. Tony was pretty repulsive, what with being the only son of Hades. He wasn't anything more than sewage.

"You lost a lot of blood. It was questionable if the ambrosia would heal you, what with the cyclopes having destroyed your ribs completely." Strange said coversationally, his voice shaking a little, probably because of adrenaline. 

Tony shrugged. "Whatever, I got out of it." He said, with a rather bad grace. 

"You were lucky, actually." Strange says, getting up to his knees and standing up, dusting off his jeans. 

Tony didn't say anything and was about to get up from the asphalt he was currently lying on before Strange reached out for him by extending his hand. 

Tony blinked. 

Strange rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't do this on a normal day. You are going to have a lot of trouble breathing. What in the name of Athena you were thinking I have no idea." He says, blandly. 

Tony figures he'll just not piss off Strange further, and he uses Strange's hand to haul himself up and gasps at the pain striking his ribs. 

The pain is unbearable, far too unbearable for Tony to even comprehend he was actually touching someone's bare skin with his hands, and Strange puts his arm around Tony for support. 

"I'll teleport us to Camp Half Blood, just, hold on." Strange says, in a rather low voice, and it's when Tony smack lands on a bed after a flash of gold does he realise he's been touched. 

He notices that Strange doesn't wipe his hands when they return. 

"Just rest. I'll be on watch." Strange says curtly, sitting on a soft chair opposite Tony's bed and leaning against the wall. 

Tony touches the hand he touched Strange with in incomprehension, and he's slightly disappointed to realise how much people take touch for granted. 

Because Strange's touch was...fairly gentle. 

Well, Tony rationalises, Strange was healing him so, of course it would be gentle. 

Otherwise he imagines it would be rougher than it was, since people didn't even want to touch him when they were harming him. 

 

_2nd touch; comraderie_

Ever since his first quest, he's been a little closer to Strange than normal. 

He can see that Strange isn't as guarded as usual and for all his verbal harshness, he loosens up when he's around Tony. 

Huh, so Strange wasn't the only one with friendship issues, he had thought to himself. 

 

Tony hadn't honestly been expecting Strange to return his fist bump, at their first Capture the Flag game. 

Tony wasn't a caveman; he was just touch deprived, socially isolated, had issues and tended to paste a smile and fake courtesies on. 

Yeah, not really a great argument but whatever. 

It's Capture the Flag, and since Tony is the odd one out, it's Strange who chose Tony for his team since Team Ares weren't willing to have a cursed kid amongst them. 

"Said dude is going to kick your asses, I hope you realise that. It should be easy enough to comprehend, for all the Neanderthal behaviour you display." Strange says, smirking when he sees that his words have the intended effect; the Ares kids get pissed. 

So it's no surprise that the Ares kids are more intent on beating up Strange bloody than getting the flag. 

This however, gives a chance for Tony to capture the flag though he knows perfectly well that it's useless. 

They're still gonna shun him and Tony is perfectly fine with that. As long as he has his underworld wolves, that's enough. 

(And Strange, his treacherous mind supplies.) 

"You caught the flag." A worn out Strange says, trudging over to Tony, looking impressed. 

Tony smiles in that cocky way of his. "Yep. Team Apollo rules, yeah?" He says, raising his closed fist. 

Let it never be said that Tony wasn't friendly. 

Strange looks surprised but he smiles slightly, himself and bumps Tony's closed fist with his own. 

Tony is surprised and he blinks. 

Strange smiles a bit wider now. "Let it never be said that Dad was just a haiku reciting moron." He says, his eyes shining with humor. 

Tony laughs, his grin brighter and his heart lighter at the fact someone voluntarily touched him to express comraderie. 

 

_3rd touch: denial to let go_

Long story short; there is a prophecy stating that seven demigods from both Camps Jupiter (he didn't know that the Roman gods and the Greek gods were actually the same but hey, it explained why they were so wacky) and Half Blood, would be the ones to defeat Thanos, a clandestine fucked up kid of Gaea and Tartarus. 

Except Thanos wasn't a kid, he was a huge purple scrotum of all the nonsense, who was, as it turned out, the reason their lives were so fucked up. 

 

And the reason Tony and Strange were currently falling down to Tartarus.

 

Falling down to Tartarus. 

It isn't something Tony planned to do; visit his dad's backyard. 

 

But he didn't want Gamora to fall down, not after everything she suffered at Thanos' hands, he didn't want Quill to fall down, not after everybody he lost. 

Gamora had just finally understood what the Mark of Athena meant; conquering the typical Athenian irrational arachnophobia, conquering the curse placed on them. 

And when she had just struck the finishing blow at her greatest enemy (after Thanos), Arachne, the stupid spider wanted the last huzzah and opened up the ground beneath them to Tartarus. 

And Quill, he was crazy in love with Gamora, the closest thing he had to family and he just went in after her. 

He didn't want everybody to lose the last thing they had. 

Which is why he decides it's okay to abandon his job at containing the monsters that are rising from the chasm (which hilariously happens to be in a New York parking lot), and summon the shadows to help out Quill and Gamora. 

They do help them out, but in the process of pulling them out, of helping them escape the immense black hole like gravity of Tartarus, he slips and falls. 

It was exhausting, because even the shadows couldn't escape the power of Tartarus, and Tony is already half way exhausted when he falls down. 

Down into the chasm, before he feels a thin hand, full of urgency, clasp his tightly. 

(Tony has for some reason gotten good at reading people through their touches. Probably because people take touch for granted.) 

" _Tony!_ "  

Tony looks up, even as the gravity weighs him down, exhausts him, and he's faced with a soul crushing sight. 

Stephen, worn down Stephen with blood running down one side of his face and who was usually so calm, cool and collected, was looking terribly panicked. 

Tony could feel terrible exhaustion seeping through his bones. 

"Let go, you idiot! The gravity will pull you down any second!" Tony finds it in him to yell. 

"This is _not_ how it's supposed to end!" Stephen yells, and Tony widens his eyes. 

He wants to say a lot of things in that moment, he's going to die, he wants Stephen to just  _know,_ but nothing comes out of his mouth, which is unusual considering he could talk off the hind leg of a hyena. 

"Let go." He says, simply. 

"No, you-" Stephen can't say any longer because the gravity sucks him in. 

The only thing that comforts Tony is that Stephen never lets go of his hand. 

It's sweaty, it's sticky, but there's warmth. 

A warmth he never knew ever since Mama died. 

Tony doesn't want to let go as he falls down, down, down... 

Down to his doom. 

 

_4th touch: familiarity_

Nine days and nine nights. 

After that, Tony loses count of his descent into Tartarus. 

 

Tartarus is hell. 

There is nothing remotely comforting about it. 

But somehow, he steers through, and disgustingly enough, there is something familiar about Tartarus. 

He doesn't know how. 

 

There's a very annoying pest in their way and it calls itself Akhlys. 

"You're the fucking embodiment of misery, aren't you." Tony states, when he sees the very ugly and very miserable primodial goddess drifting around. 

 

It turns out to be a big mistake. 

 

Tony ends up being so pissed off at Akhlys, (A) Because the bitch wouldn't just leave them alone and B) Because she's a sadistic little shit who keeps drivelling on and on about every single thing that made him miserable) that he just, _commands_ her to die. 

He lost his shit completely; he'll admit that. 

He drops boulders the size of the Statue of Liberty on Akhlys, and when she screams, he feels horrified but at the same time, exhilarated. 

"Tony, stop!" 

The feel of bare arms against his clothes feels so familiar that he stops dropping boulders and he just turns around to look at Stephen, scared at his friend's inevitable disgust. 

Instead, Tony is the one disgusted with himself when he sees the shock and fear in Stephen's face. 

"S-Stephen?" Tony croaks out, his voice broken. 

"Stop. Just, _stop_. This is her job, to drive us to misery to no end, understand?" Stephen asks, breathing heavily. 

Tony shuts his eyes, which are now filled with tears and the hold Stephen has locked him in turns into a hesitant hug. 

Though Tony hasn't been hugged before at all, the hug fills him with memories, pleasant memories; joking with Thor, laughing with Mantis at Quill and Gamora, chilling with Quill about music, geeking out with Bruce...

Just being there with Stephen... 

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I, just, she, I'm so sorry." Tony sobs out repeatedly and Stephen just pulls him in closer. 

"I'm sorry your first hug went like this, it should be somewhere that's not a dump." Stephen tries joking and Tony sobs out more because he doesn't deserve this man. 

 

_5th touch; love_

Tony honestly never believed that he'd ever get out of Tartarus. 

He knows the rules; one life must be ruined by staying in Tartarus, if the other life must get out. 

He was completely prepared to let Stephen go, because wasn't that the reason there were seven in the prophecy? 

Six meant the first six gods born to Rhea and Kronos. Seven, was just wrong. 

And Tony had no intention of being the seventh wheel. 

He didn't want to ruin any more lives. 

 

In the end, it is Prometheus and Damansen, who save their asses and send them off to the House of Hades. 

 

By then, both Tony and Stephen are so filthy, that they faint on the floor when they reach the Doors of Death on the other side.  
  
The mortal side.  
  
  
  
  
  
Stephen however, picks himself up, even though he's so exhausted he can't see for shit and he widens his eyes with effort at the sight he's seeing.  
  
Peter is summoning a huge wave of water in his fury against a giant Strange thinks must be Clytius, while Mantis is waving her hands the way one would sprinkle water, back and forth, at some witch (Pasiphaë, probably), green light surrounding her hands.  
  
Thor is swinging his hammer (somehow, it looked different) and riding Quill's waves the way one would ride a surfboard.  
  
Bruce is in his monstrous green form and smashing boulders on Clytius while Gamora darts in and out of sight with her blue sister, (was it Nebula? Stephen can't remember), slashing Clytius for all they're worth.  
  
It's Bruce, or as Tony, Tony liked to call this green form as the Hulk, who notices them.  
  
" _Flashy boy and tin boy back!_ "  
  
Stephen opens his mouth to protest at the names and yet, he faints but not before remembering Tony and wrapping an arm around him.  
  
  
  
  
  
Tony wakes up with a groan, his brain still fuzzy but some sort of sense is whizzing around here and there.  
  
Someone is holding his hand and Tony doesn't even have to turn around to know that it's Stephen.  
  
(Because of all touches, he will remember Stephen's the most. Even if it's, uh, pretty cheesy.)

He turns around and looks; they're on the Milano. 

It's only then Tony feels the implications of this; they're safe. 

He and Stephen were safe. 

They didn't have to worry about Akhlys, Nyx, Tartarus, or any motherfucker right now. 

They had a chance to live. 

And....If possible, Tony thinks, as he gets up, careful not to disturb Stephen's hold on his hand, maybe they could be more than friends assuming Stephen was well, gay. 

Stephen just then, grunts and gets up, groaning and rubbing his head with his other hand. 

"Tony, where are we?" Stephen asks, blearily, opening and closing his eyes repeatedly while rubbing them with the knuckle of the hand that's not holding Tony. 

Tony laughs a little because damn if Stephen didn't look adorable. 

"The Milano, Stephanie, we're safe." Tony says in an off hand manner, hiding his relief. 

Stephen blinks, like he can't believe it. 

"We're actually back?" Stephen asks, blinking his now widened eyes. 

The way he is smiling right now must make him look like a sap, Tony thinks to himself, as he pats his friend's back. 

"Yep. We're back." Tony says, smiling as he tucks a stray curl of Stephen's bangs away and flicks his forehead. 

Stephen blinks before he smiles himself, slightly, and then rubs his hand over Tony's, the one he had been holding on to. 

"When did we become saps." Tony says, grinning. 

Stephen grins back. "Still a better story than Twilight." 

Tony laughs and smirks. "A better love story, you mean?" 

Stephen shrugs, looking innocent. "If you want it to be." 

Tony blinks, a little taken aback. "You sure about that?" 

Stephen rolls his eyes. "Tony, you have any idea how much I tried to push myself to ask you out?" Even though he's putting on some attitude, Tony can hear the slight tremble in his voice and he clenches Stephen's hand tightly. 

(He nearly congratulates himself on how he's touching Stephen so much but it's not really the time for his issues.) 

Tony clears his throat. "Don't push yourself then. I'll ask you out myself; wanna go out with me? When this fuck up is over?" 

Stephen's smile, despite his face being so worn out, dirty and tired, could bright the whole world. 

"I'd love to." He says softly, kissing the tip of Tony's mouth. 

A kiss, Tony thinks, is a touch too. 

And if Stephen's rarely seen tender attitude is anything to go by, it must be a touch of affection. 

And Tony feels at home, with this touch. 

 

 

** _Outtake:_ **

"All is well, the energy of love is in the air!" Mantis proclaims, her entire body and mood currently relaxed. 

"I swear, if this is about me having a sexual drive for Thor, which I do not, FYI, I am gonna-" Peter starts, holding up a finger. 

"Hold up a sec, what in the name of Zeus do you mean by that?" Thor asks, looking intrigued as well as surprised. 

"He wants to get into your pants." Bruce says, blandly, drawing in gasps from an offended Peter. 

"Yo, Bruce, you want me to tell everybody whose pants you want to get into? Hint; her name starts with a-" Peter smirks as Bruce lunges for him, Nebula rolling her eyes in the background. 

Gamora shrugs. "If the energy of love is in the air, I say we all need it, what with being tense over Tony and Strange going into Tartarus and this entire issue with Thanos." She says, folding her arms. 

"Gamora's right, actually." Thor says wisely. 

Mantis smiles. "Yes! Only now do I feel peace."

Peter stops wrestling with scrawny Bruce and looks seriously at the others. "Guys, did anyone check up on Tony and Strange?" He asks, right on top of Bruce. 

Bruce grunts and tries to shove off Peter, with no success, considering that the only person who had more muscles than Peter was Thor. 

"They are alright." Mantis says, with a soft smile. 

Peter makes a face, completely ignorant to Bruce's suffering.

"If you tell me they're shagging in there, I'm gonna puke." 

"Peter, I think you need to get off Bruce." Gamora says, blandly. 

Mantis, for the first time since she knows her mother's identity, feels peace. 

Though the threat of Thanos is on them, the love they all feel for each other, is currently too powerful. 

That was what her mother was supposed to be the goddess of, instead she chose to see over a purely physical activity. 

Mantis peeks at the door into which Tony and Strange were supposed to be resting, and giggles a little. 

They were actually adorable, weren't they? 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is my thing for the first day of Ironstrange week, so yeah! Love y'all, tell me if you liked it!! ^^


End file.
